The Renaissance is well known for the artistic masterpieces, and its influence is definitely not lost in modern art. In general, it was an extremely human movement, as is much of more modern art. As I was looking at the BBC website, however, I found a fascinating article on the influence of Greek art on the Renaissance! Up until that point, I had assumed that the Renaissance was a standalone movement, but having compared Greek art, Renaissance art, and modern art, it is clear that there is a succession of development. Greek art is most commonly associated with the many statues and jars/pots that were often in human likeness. These pieces focused mostly on the human form, as seen below, with very little background work.

(From the BBC Article)

Centuries later, the Renaissance expanded on this sentiment by expanding their view to include the background. At this point, pieces often began to include not just people, but the world in which they lived. From a historical perspective, this means that art was much more useful as a way to observe the culture that created it than before.

Now, in modern art, we can see the progression come full circle. Having mastered the realistic human form, we have begun to abstract it, pushing the boundaries for what can be called human. As we exaggerate the subjects of our pieces, we often lose the background as well, and thus we come full circle to the artistic simplicity of the Greek art we started with. Given time, we may even influence a new Renaissance, centuries into the future.